It was 1992 and I was staying at the Marriott Hotel on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard. I had just completed a 6-month contract on the Fantasy and was being transferred to the Ecstasy the following morning.
I was in the middle of watching a movie when the phone rang and when I answered it was the unmistakable Scottish accent of the then Vice President of Operations Brendan Corrigan.
Brendan told me that plans had changed and instead of going to the Ecstasy I would instead be going to the Tropicale as the ship needed a cruise director. He told me to be in the lobby of the hotel at 5 am and a driver would come and collect me and take me to the ship which if I remember was at the time sailing out of Port Canaveral…………or maybe it was Tampa………..anyway…….I had to be ready to go at 5 am.
